Morel mushrooms?

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Boll Weevil

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Anybody look for them while chasing turkeys? Earliest date you've found any (including the little itty bitty greys)?
 
I've only found a couple here in West TN, but I look all the time. I found a hillside full in NE a couple years ago and packed out all I could cary. Im jealous of those who find the regularly.
 
I have one small patch I see every year.
You have to be in the right spot at the right time (temp and rain).
 
2012 I think was the earliest I have seen them, March 14 I started picking blacks. Normally they start in early April.

Here's the best turkey morel hunt I had a couple years ago

ef9c67c44b340278715ee67abbd7a8e4.jpg
 
usually about last week of march to first week of april but i think i have found them 2nd week of march before just depends on temps
 
That's a great photo Cat; a good haul in more ways than one.

Hot, weary, and on my way back to the house midday I paused to lean against an old raggedy elm and catch my breath. Glanced down and saw a morel peeking out from the leaf litter..then 2, 3, 4. That hillside around was COVERED in mushrooms. Never had a find like that before and likely never will again...they were absolutely everywhere.
 
Boll Weevil":2cnb44hn said:
That's a great photo Cat; a good haul in more ways than one.

Hot, weary, and on my way back to the house midday I paused to lean against an old raggedy elm and catch my breath. Glanced down and saw a morel peeking out from the leaf litter..then 2, 3, 4. That hillside around was COVERED in mushrooms. Never had a find like that before and likely never will again...they were absolutely everywhere.
Click to expand...
man back in 2013 myself and in the dog house stumbled on a huge patch that we went back and kept picking for a couple weeks. Combined we got well over a thousand out of that area, maybe close to 2000, I really don't know. The most I hauled in one day was 444. I check back every spring since then and found a few here and there but nothing like the first time.


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I'm sure you guys do this but if you find a big parch be sure to tap the tops once youve picked them supposedly it spreads their seeds. No idea of it works, but something I was taught
 
Setterman":1kpigyqa said:
I'm sure you guys do this but if you find a big parch be sure to tap the tops once youve picked them supposedly it spreads their seeds. No idea of it works, but something I was taught
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they drop a lot of spores constantly. They dropped millions before you picked them, and they keep dropping them after you pick them too. Which is why a lot of people use mesh bags to carry them. I have spread the mushrooms out on a white countertop before, left them overnight and came back to find spore prints around all the mushrooms, where they had left a visible residue on the countertop from all the spores they dropped overnight.


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Tasty little treats that are only available for a week or so during turkey season.
I only find them by accident, so I'll let someone more knowledgeable give info on how to find them.
 
Freak,
I'd highly recommend a quick Google search of "morel mushroom" and "false morel mushroom" so you can properly identify. One is super yummy, the other has high levels of harmful toxins that can make you ill. It's best if you invest a few minutes to learn how to clearly discern one from the other.

Regarding where to look it varies widely by terrain, sunlight, soil type, temperature, soil moisture, humidity and I imagine a bunch of other factors that only the mushroom knows. I've found many around dead or dying elm and big white oak trees for some reason; often on the north or east side of the tree. I also find them alongside rotting trees on the ground. They often come back in the same spots year after year but sometimes not; you just have hunt for them. Sometimes you'll pick 1 or 2 from a spot and come back the next day and there 4 or 5 more...they can pop up overnight and it's amazing how fast.

Cat sounds like he's got the record for numbers in one spot so maybe he'll chime in with what that hotspot looked like.
 
^ the hot spot was dominated by tulip poplar. One of my go to trees to hunt. Not just isolated ones, but whole groves. That bag of shrooms next to the dead gobbler was also in a stand of tuliptree.

I also find them around ash trees and sometimes hickory.

It's not that the mushrooms always grow right around the specific trees. It's more like they share the same environment and are often found in the same areas as certain trees. But there are no absolutes. They can be anywhere.

Some trees I'd look for when finding a new spot are tulip, ash, maples and hickory just to start. Apparently some people find them around sycamores, but I have yet to have luck with those. Worth checking into anyway.

As for the false morel, I've only found one, and it really doesn't look much like a morel once you know what morels look like.

True morel:
c786a60d68cc6cbca5e19574fdde7801.jpg


False morel:
394bb4d7d4e2303bcb5e3a5a58eab801.jpg


True morels look sponge like, but false morels look more brain-like.

True morels have completely hollow stems, but false morels have solid or cotton-like interiors. Very easy to tell the difference.


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ash and sycamores is the two trees i find them around more, sycamores are more hit and miss than ash trees. found probly 2000 or more one year in a hedge row, that fall the hedges was dozed up hated to see that.
 
If this weather stays like it's been this week it might be an early year. I think the earliest I have ever found them was on the juvi hunt weekend a few years ago.
 
WORM82":3pa05ms4 said:
If this weather stays like it's been this week it might be an early year. I think the earliest I have ever found them was on the juvi hunt weekend a few years ago.
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Agreed...rain all week too? Grab the mesh bag, cornmeal, and fire up the grease.
 
WORM82":2o8o2m5e said:
If this weather stays like it's been this week it might be an early year. I think the earliest I have ever found them was on the juvi hunt weekend a few years ago.
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yep i was looking at the forecast and thinking the same thing wouldnt doubt they might be some up next week.
 
LanceS4803":1lkoxz3r said:
.....that are only available for a week or so during turkey season.
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Good stuff here guys, thanks for sharing. I have never picked one, but I hate to admit that as much time as I spend scouring the woods in the spring.

Question of clarification here: some say they are only available for a week. If the mushroom pops out of the ground, does it rot in a week, or what? Just trying to decide if you truly only have a week to get them before they turn bad or become non edible.
 

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